When director Kyle Newachek first watched “Happy Gilmore” at age 12, he could never have imagined that the actor portraying the now-iconic titular role — a failed hockey player turned unlikely golf star — would one day become his creative collaborator.

“Carl Weathers had a massive part,” Sandler, 58, confirmed. Weathers, who died at age 76 on Feb. 1, 2024, played the one-handed Derick "Chubbs" Peterson — mentor to Sandler’s titular hockey player-turned-golfer — in the 1996 sports comedy.

Chubbs Peterson isn’t exactly being replaced in Happy Gilmore 2, as his son will appear in his place. Lavell Crawford of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is portraying the character, who also has a prosthetic wooden hand like his father.